When I was a Lad my all time favorite cartoon was Speed Racer. I suppose someone geekier than me (as if!), might know if this was the first Japanese cartoon to make it big in America and usher in the current wave of Anime. I don't really care. I'm not a huge fan of Amine, but Speed was my hero.
I can remember rushing to the back room at my Grandmother's house to watch Speed. You see, I grew up in the country, that is, a few miles outside of town. Back in those days, (ewww, did I just use that phrase? I am officially a pretentious old fart). Anyway - In the late Sixties and Early Seventies if one lived more than a mile or so outside of town there was no cable TV. I lived about 3 miles outside of Town so we only got over the air broadcast. Most days, the channel Speed Racer was on didn't come in very clearly, if at all. However, a couple of days a week my Grandmother would pick me up from school and I would get to watch TV at her house. Well, Speed came on at the same time as one of my Grandmother's Soap operas, or her "Stories" as she called them. That meant I was relegated to the back bedroom to watch Speed Racer. Far from being annoyed, I was thrilled!! I was all alone with my hero and my imagination. In my mind, I would drive the Mach 5 and Trixie was my girl! Yes, even at such a young age, Brave Sir Robin fancied himself a ladies man, but that is another post.
So imagine how excited I was to see this:
That dear reader is the car that has been created for the Speed Racer Movie coming out next May. Well, if that wasn't enough, Christina Ricci has been cast as Trixie!!!! (Swoon), and Susan Sarandon has been cast as Mom Racer!! (double swoon) I realize this is along the same lines as the last post, but DAMN!!!! They better not screw this up!! I really, truly hope they just play this straight and don't try to dumb it down as they did with Josie and the Pussycats, or apparently as they have with Nancy Drew. First of all, not everyone who will go to see this film will be 13, and anyhow, kids are way more sophisticated than they often get credit for. It is not necessary to turn every film into mindless cliche'.If you happen to share my passion please enjoy this:
So, tell me. What book/comic/tv show etc.... from your childhood would you love to see on the big screen.
Degree of difficulty: The Hobbit goes without saying, but only if Peter Jackson does it.
3 comments:
I spent my teenage sunday nights smoking pot and watching hours of speed racer, 120 minutes, and liquid television. I still yell out "go Speed go!" when racing through traffic and then sing the theme song.
We have an old vhs of a few speed racer episodes complete with a bad (really bad) c&c music factory style music video of the theme song tacked on the end.
We had an old VHS that I turned the boys onto a few years ago, but it finally got eaten by the machine.
Oh Noes! Susan Sarandon as Mama X is hot though, but I'm not a huge Christina Ricci fan.
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